TN Legislature discusses amendments to "Don't Say Gay" bill

Guidance counselors, teachers and principals may be limited to giving
only career and educational advice to students under the latest version
of a bill that deals with discussion of homosexuality in schools.

A measure in the works in the Tennessee legislature would bar school personnel from advising students on "mental health" issues, 'lifestyle' choices or other conditions or activities outside
career and educational counseling" unless they have been licensed as a
clinical psychologist or psychiatrist.

The legislation, which could come up for discussion today, has been filed as an amendment to the Classroom Protection Act, which itself updates the so-called "Don't Say Gay" bill that has tied the legislature in knots the past several years.

Sponsors say it would ensure that guidance counselors stick to their roles.

"School
counselors in general are licensed, hired and paid to be counseling on
academic and career education," said state Rep. John Ragan, R-Oak Ridge.
"We do not pay them nor license them to counsel on anything else."

The
amendment already is drawing fire from critics of the "Don't Say Gay"
bill and the Classroom Protection Act. They say the amendment would
discourage students from discussing their problems with those they
trust.

"Kids come to school personnel all the time with all kinds
of problems," said Chris Sanders, president and chairman of the
Tennessee Equality Project, a gay rights group. "What it does to kids is
it leaves them in limbo."

Lawmakers first debated legislation
that came to be known as the "Don't Say Gay" bill in 2009, when
then-state Rep. Stacey Campfield, R-Knoxville, filed a measure
prohibiting discussions of homosexuality before high school. The measure
has failed repeatedly.

Now a senator, Campfield added a provision to this year's version, Senate Bill 234, requiring school counselors to inform parents if a student discusses his or her sexual orientation.

The
amendment would jettison that approach. Teachers, counselors and
principals instead would be asked to give students a referral for
psychiatric care if they bring up mental health or lifestyle issues.
School districts would also have to train educators on how to handle
such questions.

Ragan said his amendment would not prohibit
conversations with students entirely. They would just assume all the
legal risk if they did so.

"There's nothing in the bill - nor could there be anything in the bill - that abridges First Amendment rights," he said.

The
bill was on the agenda to be heard in the House Education
subcommittee on Tuesday. Companion legislation is yet to be heard in the Senate.